Saturday, November 15, 2008

Michigan's DNA Law

This is Wayne Kuipers he is a state Senator from the west side of the state. He also happens to be the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. This week he pulled a fast one on the Innocence Project and on any innocence people who are in prison in Michigan. We have worked for months to improve the DNA testing law in Michigan. We have a good bill that was passed by the state house. We have been trying to contact Kuipers' office for weeks to get him to take up the bill. He clearly knows that we (the Cooley Innocence Project) want the changes and are interested in testifying in the committee meeting when the bill is considered. On Wednesday the Senate Judiciary Committee met and took up the DNA testing bill. The bill was not on the agenda and surprised almost everyone in the room. Everyone probably except Kuipers because he has a substitute which extended the testing law which is a very good thing. But the substitute removed all of the other improvements that we had fought so hard for. The move was extremely cowardly. If you want to substitute bills fine but let people know it is on the agenda so we can come testify why we need the improvements. Someone or some entity is behind this and has managed to get Kuipers to kill our bill. The most likely candidate is the Prosecutors Association of Michigan.Kuipers is reputed to be considering a run for governor. If he does I will do all I can to keep him from that office. If this is an example of how he would run things then he would be an awful governor.